Official: FDA to OK Plan B for 17-year-olds
by Brady Swenson, RH Reality Check
April 22, 2009 - 2:09pm (Print)
The AP is reporting that a government health official says the Food and Drug Administration will
allow 17-year-olds to get the 'morning-after' birth control pill
without a doctor's prescription.
An official said the agency will announce Wednesday it's complying with a federal judge's order. The official was not authorized to speak publicly before the agency's announcement, so the information was provided on grounds of anonymity.
Last month a federal judge ruled that Bush administration appointees let politics, not science, drive their decision to allow over-the-counter access only for women 18 and older.
For more check out Real Time Blogger Elisabeth Garber-Paul's take on lowering the age limit for over-the-counter access to Plan B.
Lowering the age limit for this morning after pill is another measure that'll hopefully help control pregnancy at a really young age. Let's hope this goes well.
Now, maybe we can go to court to make EC available to 16 1/2 year olds . . . then maybe 16 . . . then 15 1/2 . . .
There doesn't seem to be any minimum standard of courage to be in the bureaucracy. The original commission was to make it available over-the-counter. We need to call on the FDA to review the decision, not just "decline to appeal" piecemeal rulings.
How disappointing.
--Lon--
Thanks, Jodi - I aplogize, though, I forgot that the original application to the FDA was for OTC status for 16 year-olds and over with prescription status for 15 and under.
Our state family planning conference is in Wisconsin Dells this year and the theme is "EC - Not Just an Afterthought."
We will have Dr. James Trussell (888-not-2-Late) with us and we will be bringing folks from clinics and from academia together. I would like to invite all of you.
and, it's cheap!)
The conference:
http://www.hcet.org/events/FPConference_5-09.htm
is inexpensive and coming up May 13-14th.
--Lon--
This should have been done a long time ago. The reasons for holding this back were theological rather than scientific.
I'm curious, what exactly do conservatives want? Complete abstinence? That will never ever happen.
They don't want to care for these mothers and children. They don't want to educate teens. Do they have any other ideas on how to deal with teen pregnancy?
I'm still kind of surprised the courts actually approved this.
I know of parents who had talks with their daughter about sex. They included a request that if the child feels a need for birth control medication to let the parent know and it will be provided, no questions asked. I don't know if she ever requested.
On the other hand I know of parents who offered $100 to a daughter if she graduated without being pregnant. The girl did not receive the money.
Cause and effect are interesting forces.
Here's a link to a good article on this topic . . . according to this, Judge Korman has required the FDA to reconsider any age restrictions. My "reservation" on that is that the original request from the pharmaceutical company was for 16 and over. So, there's a lot of bureaucratic room for mischief between doing what the judge has ordered and granting Barr Lab's request . . . and we know who falls into those gaps.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090423/ap_on_he_me/us_morning_after_pill
--Lon--
